News 2-12

The board of directors for the Mendocino County Museum are meeting for the first time in months. The meeting after the museum director left, the place was without a leader for months and complaints to the county CEO about a lack of leadership. The Daily Journal reports a couple who had been hired as archivists had their contract suspended and the library director’s been appointed to lead the museum. There’s also a probe into the intermingling of funds between a nonprofit and the county’s general fund. The newspaper reports the county CEO and her deputy have been hands on in the investigation into how the museum’s being managed since last summer. The CEO says they found the museum director had not been to work in a week or more and had not been showing up regularly. Apparently it was a health issue that led to her eventual retirement. The curators are waiting to find out if they still have a job. And the county’s trying to straighten out the finances at the museum and for its nonprofit. The board meeting this morning at 10-AM.

After a complaint there’s not enough handicapped parking spaces near the Mendocino County Library in Ukiah, the Traffic Engineering Committee is meeting. The complaint from a resident who said it makes it difficult for people with limited mobility to use the library. She said there’s only one proper Americans with Disabilities Act space in front of the library entrance which is usually being used. The resident asking for up to four handicap spaces within walking distance to the library. So now city staff is trying to get blue curb space in front of the library to be replaced with loading only and to add a couple more handicap spaces too. The meeting tomorrow at 3-PM at the Civic Center will also include a talk about no parking in front of Plowshares.

A woman hit by the main library branch in Ukiah over the weekend. The Ukiah Valley Fire Authority reports the pedestrian hit by a car about 5-PM Friday in the 300 block of North Main Street. They reported the woman had “moderate to major” injuries to her face and arm after being hit by an SUV with a female driver. The victim taken to Adventist Health Ukiah Valley. But the Fire Dept. says they expected the woman would be flown to another hospital for further treatment.

The Governor announcing a new head of the CHP. Governor Brown appointed Warren Stanley of Sacramento to be the new commissioner of the California Highway Patrol after being the interim commish since last year. Stanley’s been with the CHP since 1982 when he joined as a patrol officer. He’s worked his way up to being the assistant commissioner for staff and field, then to deputy commissioner. The last commissioner left to be a college police chief. Stanley thanking the Governor in a prepared statement.

An elderly woman has been arrested after police say she shot at neighbor kids because they were too loud. Police in Redding say 84 year old Betty Sanders fired her handgun Friday towards the children who are between 8 and 10 years old, after complaining first about motorcycle noise. The Redding Record Searchlight says the kids mom told police she was arguing with Sanders before the woman shot her gun which was about 20 feet from the kids. The woman faces assault with a firearm and child endangerment charges and was being held on $50,000 bail.

Another person’s arrested in connection to a home invasion in Santa Rosa. Police say a fourth person was arrested after the invasion and murder in an unincorporated area of the city last week. Those arrested are 25 year old Tyrone McRae of Jackson, Miss., 19 year old Jonathan Christopher Doug Jackson of Richmond Hill, N.Y., 27 year old Mussie Himed of Santa Rosa and 23 year old David Ealey of Richmond, Va. There’s still one person on the run, identified as Amber Hembree. Her picture is on the Sonoma Sheriff’s Facebook page. The five are accused of invading two homes, one where the resident, Luis Torres, was murdered, and another person at the other home was shot, they survived. None of the accused had bail set.

Several dozen people have been rescued after a water taxi got stuck out of Berkeley. The Coast Guard reports getting a call Saturday afternoon that the ferry about a mile off the Berkeley Marina had run aground with about 40 people or so on board. They reported rescuing everyone and getting them to land with no reported injuries.

Thousands of sex offenders may be up for early parole. This comes as a judge in Sacramento has ordered prison officials to rewrite part of an initiative that passed in 2016 so some offenders could get early parole. But then the Governor promised all sex offenders would be excluded. The judge said that went too far and rejected a Deputy Attorney General’s argument saying the state had broad discretion about which offenders release might harm public safety. But the judge says the language is too loose and exclusions should be narrowed to those serving time for violent sex offenses, and that needs to be defined better.

Lake County is asking for proposals for those interested in leasing or buying the old Lucerne Hotel which was being used as a college campus as of late. It’s a 55,000-square-foot building on seven acres on Country Club Drive, purchased by the county’s old redevelopment agency in 2010. There were also major renovations as it was being used as a satellite campus for Marymount California University until they closed the doors without notice last June. The university did however pay the county $65,000 for breaking the lease. The deadline for offers is April 25th.

The Southshore Little League gets an extension of the lease so they can upgrade the fields and facilities. The Clearlake City Council agreed to the extension after the city manager said the league approached him so they could do some “capital intensive” upgrades. That apparently includes new lighting and a new t-ball fields too. They’re also looking for a longer term. They had five more years to go. They’ve been playing for about 60 years on the local fields. The league has already made some upgrades including power lines for pitching machines and another for the snack shack. They’ve also put in a new flagpole, painted all the buildings and had new roofs put on the dugouts.

Getting down to dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. The Clearlake City Council has the first reading of its commercial cannabis ordinance amendment. It was written to make language more clear on where the growing is allowed after council members said they wanted to steer clear of the Lakeshore Drive corridor. The city manager and city attorney presented the amendment to the council due to a missing semicolon, which made it look like the city was allowing gardens on both sides of Highway 53. So in December the council put up an urgency ordinance so there could be no commercial cannabis growing on the west side of Highway 53. A second reading is expected an another council meeting.

A server at an Outback Steakhouse in Florida now without a job for complaining she wasn’t tipped by a local church when they had a large takeout order. Tamlynn Yoder posted on Facebook that Christ Fellowship ordered 25 steaks, 25 chickens and 25 potatoes last week which they put together and delivered, but when they were done, no tip. The server says she’s a low wage earner and it would have been nice to get a tip since it took away from her other work there. A friend of hers online reported her post and the church got a refund and she lost her job. The restaurant chain says employees are not allowed to post online about customers. The church now apparently trying to reach out to Yoder.